Apropos of Nothing *4*

Palomar · 2005-03-14 08:25:12

*I feel like singing today.

Picture yourself in a boat on a river, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies

Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly
A girl with kaleidoscope eyes

Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
towering over your head

Look for the girl with the Sun in her eyes and she's gone...

:up:

--Cindy

(Maybe tomorrow I'll "sing" part of a John Denver tune. Oh and, yes -- I'm the girl referred to in the song. LOL)

Shaun Barrett · 2005-03-14 18:58:09

Cindy:-

Oh and, yes -- I'm the girl referred to in the song. LOL

Ahah!! We thought as much.

Palomar · 2005-03-14 20:09:41

*Well, we went to the "stray cat walk-thru" at the county animal shelter this afternoon. My husband's been checking regularly to see if Radar has been brought in.

No luck.

It was my first time through the "stray cat walk-thru." Believe it or not, they've got dogs in the same room (of course all animals have their own cages; one to a cage).

One small mutt was barking his head off -- a loud, high-pitched bark that immediately bounced off the opposite wall (tiny room). The cats looked REALLY happy about that, NOT. Poor cats frozen like statues, only their eyes alive (squinting and glaring and glittering). I had a mental image of what would happen if all cage doors suddenly swung open, ha ha.

::sigh::

The water in Radar's bowl has long since evaporated; it's dry as a bone.

At least we've still got our loveable old dog, Prince. He's a real sweetheart.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-03-15 06:20:37

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u … son]Update on Michael Jackson trial

*Apparently the accuser is -- at best -- rather confused. He's twice told the dean at school that Jackson did nothing to him.

I have conflicting feelings about MJ, but I'd still like to believe -- despite his being very eccentric, sometimes outright weird and having VERY poor judgment -- he wouldn't harm a child, especially not molestation.

The parents of this boy should be on trial. They couldn't have NOT known of the 1994 issues. Despite previous allegations against MJ, they let their son stay overnight at his home.

Frankly, I think these people are digging for gold. And now Jackson's nearly bankrupt.

Michael should have learned his lesson from 10 years ago, especially if he is truly innocent.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-03-16 12:43:14

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u … on]Michael Jackson & Rev. Jesse Jackson pray together

*I am so relieved that Michael has turned to Rev. Jackson instead of that other group of people (Farrakhan's) he was associating himself with earlier. Jesse Jackson is providing spiritual support and counseling, etc.

In 1987 I was with a group of people who visited J. Jackson's church. He wasn't there at the time.

Jesse Jackson seems like a better person in many respects than Farrakhan and his crowd. I was shocked when Michael first turned to Farrakhan's people for help...considering Liz Taylor is a close and personal friend (or was last I knew) and she's Jewish (via conversion through a former marriage). That's not the only thing Farrakhan is divisive and hateful about.

Michael's in better company now.

--Cindy

BWhite · 2005-03-17 00:35:39

Lawyers, Guns And Money
(Warren Zevon)

Well, I went home with the waitress
The way I always do
How was I to know
She was with the Russians, too
I was gambling in Havana
I took a little risk
Send lawyers, guns and money
Dad, get me out of this
I'm the innocent bystander
Somehow I got stuck
Between the rock and the hard place
And I'm down on my luck
And I'm down on my luck
And I'm down on my luck
Now I'm hiding in Honduras
I'm a desperate man
Send lawyers, guns and money
The shit has hit the fan

Palomar · 2005-03-17 13:58:16

*Okaaaaaaay. I just saw a video clip -- taken some years ago -- of Michael Jackson sitting on a sofa, holding a boy's hand and saying the greatest love you can show a person is sharing your bed with them, when asked directly if children are sleeping -in his- bed -with- him. :-\

Um...I think I'll just leave it to the jury. Enough said.

--Cindy

dicktice · 2005-03-17 18:32:47

Am I the only one of us sporatic contributers, who thinks that our "Replies" are being hurried out of "New Posts" and into "New Mars forums" too quickly to be read from one day to the next? What are the rules, if there are any--or do I detect a subtle form of (gasp) censoring afoot?

BWhite · 2005-03-19 19:22:36

Nah, the religious right is not gaining http://www.nytimes.com/auth/login?URI=h … ]influence because of Republican ascendancy.

You evolution loving, non-evangelical types have NOTHING to worry about, except the social ostracism of your children if you teach them evolution.

Thank God I live in a blue state. Evolution is not shunned here.

Cobra Commander · 2005-03-19 20:11:23

Evolution... or Constitution... Can't have it all it seems.

Revolution? :hm:

Palomar · 2005-03-19 22:22:39

Evolution... or Constitution... Can't have it all it seems.
Revolution? :hm:

*Maybe Convolution?

--Cindy

Mad Grad Student · 2005-03-19 23:30:56

Am I the only one of us sporatic contributers, who thinks that our "Replies" are being hurried out of "New Posts" and into "New Mars forums" too quickly to be read from one day to the next? What are the rules, if there are any--or do I detect a subtle form of (gasp) censoring afoot?

I'm probably one of the most sporatic of the bunch, and it does get frustrating at times. When you don't post daily or nearly daily your posts are often smushed to the back of the queue making it difficult to keep up. I mostly just skim after a long abscence or just gloss over topics entirely. There are days, for sure, when I look at someone with a daily post average of above 5 (!!!!!) and think, "I should be doing that," but pragmatically there's no reason to. There's just so many things to do, so little time, for those of us who can make the commitment to New Mars to post daily that's great but for people like me I'm happy to just jump in when I'm comfortable.

Probably not censorship. -Longish pause-. So what do y'all think about abortion? Heh heh, that's about as big a can of worms as you can possibly open, fell free to respond if you dare. For serious contenders only. :;):

Less controversially, I think we could all benefit if we were more in touch with our inner valley girls. I try to keep in touch with mine, it's quite breathtaking, really. Ahem.

dicktice · 2005-03-20 15:25:54

"Inner valley girls?"

Mad Grad Student · 2005-03-20 16:35:55

"Inner valley girls?"

Long story.

Actually it's not, I just made it up. A "valley girl" is someone from the SoCal/west coast region who talks in the stereotypical dialect of 90s American teenagers. You know, says "like" every three words, and their idea of intellectual vocabulary includes words like "totally," "gnarly," "tubular," etc.

Anyways, I once by accident said "like" about five times in a sentence along with many of those above vocab words while talking to a guy in French class and muttered "Whoa, I'm just talking like a valley girl today." So perhaps "inner valley girl" as in the fun-loving, shop-till-you-drop surfer in all of us. Like your "inner child," but like totally fur real awesome, dudes!

Hey, it's the apropos. If you want serious discussion go to "Human Missions." I just come here to ramble and say whatever happens to pop into my mind at the most inopportune moments. Maybe you learned something. It's a theoretical possibility.

Palomar · 2005-03-20 16:50:42

Out on the road today, I saw a DEADHEAD sticker on a Cadillac
A little voice inside my head said, "Don't look back. You can never look back."
I thought I knew what love was
What did I know?
Those days are gone forever
I should just let them go but-

dicktice · 2005-03-20 20:55:52

"DEADHEAD?" I'm pushing 80, and trying to write dialogue spoken by 20-something's. Between Mad Grad and ecrasez_I_infame, I'm beginning to worry that I'm not up to it, without a course in modern slang. The Internet has lots to say, but I need personal contact, to sort out what's "in" and what's not. European characters, speaking (British/Canadian) English aren't a problem, since they're expected to speak slang which is more or less dated, which is a reason that I tend to avoid "American"speaking characters in my stories. Okay, back to youse guys.

Mad Grad Student · 2005-03-20 23:08:01

I wouldn't worry if I were you. English is intellectually considered a Germanic language, but that doesn't really do justice to the language. There are hundreds if not thousands of intricate dialects of English scattered throughout the world, each of which has assimilated and incorporated other nearby languages. Just as the US is considered (at least by us Americans) as the political "melting pot" of the world, English is the linguistic melting pot. Pretty much everyone knows what a "valley girl" is, so long as they live around Southern California or Arizona. Outside of that region very few would recognize that piece of slang. As for deadhead, I'm not quite sure myself what that means, but it's part of a song, so whatev.

"Take it easy,
Take it easy,
Don't let the sound of your own wheels
Drive you crazy,
Lighten up, while you still can,
Find a place to make your stand,
And take it easy"
-The Eagles

Heh heh, I love that song. Hey, speaking of odd pieces of slang, a while ago in English we had a discussion on synecdoches. We of course covered the usual synecdoches you hear in everyday coloquial conversation (like car=wheels, clothes=threads, where a whole is represented by one of its parts), and my teacher mentioned one I had never heard before, girl=skirt. Of course, nowadays if you called someone a "skirt" a lawyer would jump from behind a bush and put you in court for sexual harrasment fast enough to make your head spin, but has anyone else here heard this idiom before?

I know it's a bit late, but here's another chance to go analyze someone's dreams. What exactly does it mean when you have a dream in which you walk into a poorly-lit subway car, sit down with a friend and have a nice conversation about absolutely nothing (ie in Seinfeld) for about five or six hours with her? It beats me. I can't remember a single thing we talked about but I do know that it was pleasant and went on for hours and hours dream time, though I imagine it was a couple of minutes real-world time. I do remember that the conversation strayed over to the subject of me needing to be more spontaneous just as I woke up. Odd, eh? :;):

Palomar · 2005-03-20 23:19:15

"DEADHEAD?" I'm pushing 80, and trying to write dialogue spoken by 20-something's.

*Hi dicktice: I took that quote from a hit rock 'n roll song in 1984, by Don Henley (formerly of the rock band "The Eagles"). It's part of the song The Boys of Summer (one of my very favorite songs from the 1980s).

A "Deadhead" is what fans of the old rock band "The Grateful Dead" were commonly called. A "Deadhead" would have been a hippie...who now drives a Cadillac (which represents materialism and greed, of course).

I wasn't even a 20-something in 1984, come to think of it. But awfully close. :;):

If you're looking to create 20-something dialogue, don't take any cues from me (or songs from 1984); I'm 39 and the lingo of my generation is long since gone.

[Although -- somewhere in Time -- Michael J. Fox is still and always will be an eternal 25-year-old driving DeLoreans. :laugh: ]

Also: If you're trying to build dialogue for 20-something characters in fiction, why not invent your own catch phrases, slang words and "lingo"? 20-somethings 80 years from now won't be talking like 20-somethings of 2005.

--Cindy

P.S.:

Dicktice: European characters, speaking (British/Canadian) English aren't a problem, since they're expected to speak slang which is more or less dated

We Americans are groovy, Pops.

Cobra Commander · 2005-03-21 06:36:23

and my teacher mentioned one I had never heard before, girl=skirt. . . has anyone else here heard this idiom before?

Indeed, hence the term "skirt chaser", which can apply to every heterosexual male of the species to some degree.

I'm trying to recall exactly when and how I picked that up (the terminology, stop wagging that finger) and as near as I can recall it was Bugs Bunny cartoons. ???

But I'd never heard the term synecdoche before, learn something new everyday.

Edited By Cobra Commander on 1111412680

Palomar · 2005-03-21 07:36:06

and my teacher mentioned one I had never heard before, girl=skirt. . . has anyone else here heard this idiom before?
Indeed, hence the term "skirt chaser", which can apply to every heterosexual male of the species to some degree.
I'm trying to recall exactly when and how I picked that up (the terminology, stop wagging that finger) and as near as I can recall it was Bugs Bunny cartoons. ???

*Wow, the generational differences sure are obvious. Not being snide, just remarking.

Not sure I ever heard the term "skirt chaser" in any Bugs Bunny cartoons, but it used to be a fairly common general term. "Skirt chaser" synonymous with "gigolo." The popularity of those terms were waning when I was a kid, but I remember them being used by even middle-aged folks back then.

Apparently girls were sometimes called "skirt" as an affectionate nickname or perhaps (likely) even a put-down. That I've not heard except in Stephen King's story "It" -- where a teenaged male character refers -- affectionately -- to the only gal in the group of friends as "Hey, Skirt." That story was set in the late 1950s, when King himself was a young teen. His memory, I guess.

--Cindy

P.S.: Lots of old slanguage no longer in use, which is always interesting to recall. Just like lots of elderly men in Iowa/Midwest used to whistle tunes a lot -- while walking, while working -- when I was a kid. They'd whistle bird-calls too, and were usually very good at this (and the tunes). I rarely if ever hear elderly men whistle anymore, and not for a long time. Guess it's a lost art.

Cobra Commander · 2005-03-21 08:13:20

I rarely if ever hear elderly men whistle anymore, and not for a long time. Guess it's a lost art.

There's an older guy here at the office that whistles quite frequently. I find it more annoying than anything.

Another slang oddity occurs to me, use of the word "sweet" in a similar manner to the now universally understood "cool", as in "that's a sweet ride". In my immediate geographic area it wasn't in widespread use, hardly ever heard it actually. But in nearby areas it was constantly applied. Don't really know why. ???
But then we had our own very localized slang that no one else used, yet seemed to be understood by anyone who heard it.

Klingon: A lone stoner who attaches himself to a group even though no one in the group invited him in or even knows him particularly well. Applies especially when the stoner in question has less than adequate hygiene.

Garf: Any unintelligable mess of data, as in "what's this garf?" when a computer boots to ascii symbols.

I also recall referring to anyone who seems generally phoney or unnatural as a "replicant".

I suppose if nothing else it illustrates how languages branch apart and eventually become distinct and foreign to others.

dicktice · 2005-03-21 08:56:50

"Flapper." Anyone care to explain that very common term for a chick, skirt, babe, doll, frail, broad ... from the 1920's?

Cobra Commander · 2005-03-21 09:10:44

Anyone care to explain that very common term for a chick, skirt, babe, doll, frail, broad ...

Frail? Never heard that.

Palomar · 2005-03-21 09:57:09

"Flapper." Anyone care to explain that very common term for a chick, skirt, babe, doll, frail, broad ... from the 1920's?

*I did -not- consult Google.

A flapper was a party girl, right? Hanging out at "speak-easies"? I have a mental image of a gal with a (trying to come up with an adjective!!) decorative band around the top of her head and maybe adorned with a feather, and a below-knee dress with rows of fine fringe running the entire length of the dress. IIRC, most of those dresses were sleeveless? Doing the jitterbug and the Charleston? Didn't they also smoke cigarettes from those very long and tapered cigarette holders which were usually black or ivory in color?

I've never heard of "frail" either, in this regard.

What about "dame"?

--Cindy

Mad Grad Student · 2005-03-21 17:28:59

In my age group/geographic area "sweet" seems to have been mostly phased out with the equally-non-sensical "tight." Also, "dope" is synonymous with "really cool," and "ride" will work just as well as "car." This allows for some awkward sentences such as "Dude, that ride's tight dope!" I suppose if you averaged the ages of Cindy and me you'd come up with a 20-something at the age of 27.5, if that counts. And androgynous for good measure.

"Synecdoche" (sin-eck-doh-key) is one of the literary terms we went over while covering Macbeth earlier this year. We're now done with that unit, save for the oral interpretations that will come next Monday after we all return from spring break. Rght now I'm just trying to enjoy my week off (w00t!). Before leaving we were all given a copy of Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and told that if we wanted to we could start flipping through it. So far it's a very interesting book, it has that quality of movies like Master and Commander and October Sky, you really feel like you're back in the mid-Victorian era. Pretty cool (as far as I can tell that term's not going away).

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